News Clips - September 26, 2008

From September 19 to September 25, Carnegie Mellon Media Relations counted 480 references to the university in worldwide publications. Here is a sample.

National

Upbeat professor remembered for Web 'last lecture'Associated Press | September 23A Carnegie Mellon University professor whose "last lecture" of his life's lessons became an Internet sensation was celebrated Monday for challenging people to strive for more than they thought they were capable of, while remembering to have fun. About 400 colleagues and friends gathered at Carnegie Mellon to remember Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design, who was recognized as a pioneer of virtual reality research. He died of cancer in July, 10 months after giving the lecture that touched millions worldwide. He was 47.http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jsERrl7KYa2k7jnINa1qbFwNAB8AD93C5B480

Professor: Current crisis, Great Depression differNPR | September 22Morning Edition, September 22, 2008 · As the country struggles with the current financial crisis, there have been the inevitable comparisons with the Great Depression. Marvin Goodfriend, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business in Pittsburgh, tells Linda Wertheimer that while people are comparing this financial crisis to the 1930s, there are some big differences.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94876611

The camera-friendly, perfectly pixelated, easily downloadable celebrity academicThe New York Times | September 21For months I resisted the hugely popular “Last Lecture” of Randy Pausch, who was a computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon until he died of pancreatic cancer in July. I worried that the spiel, which later became a book called “The Last Lecture,” would be too inspirational, too elegiac, too sad. Too Tony Robbins. It wouldn’t qualify, in short, as an academic lecture. But once I set the video rolling, I changed my mind before Pausch finished his opening thank-yous.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/magazine/21youtube-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=%22Carnegie%20Mellon%22&st=cse&oref=slogin

Education for Leadership

RV Eatin': Trailer hooks people up to nostalgia, art, yummy local foodPittsburgh Post-Gazette | September 25Some people are wary of eating food from a food truck or trailer, because it can be hastily prepared and unhealthy. But three Carnegie Mellon University art students are taking the concept and turning it inside-out -- literally -- with their mobile dining venue RV Eatin', which co-founder Claire Hoch calls "an inverted food truck." RV Eatin' is a diner housed in an old aluminum recreational trailer that brings its cozy dining room and outdoor kitchen -- basically a couple of tables, a small barbecue and a camping stove -- to its patrons.http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08269/914778-34.stm

Arts and Humanities

Market mess? Blame your brainForbes.com | September 24But the ratings agencies were being compensated by issuers of the mortgage-backed securities, and neuroeconomics says that created big problems. "You don't get mistakes this big based on stupidity alone," says George Loewenstein of Carnegie Mellon University. "It's when you combine stupidity and people's incentives that you get errors of this magnitude." Consider this forthcoming research by Loewenstein, Roberto Weber, also of Carnegie Mellon, and John Hamman, of Southern Illinois University. They organized volunteers into partners. One partner is given $10 and told to split it however he sees fit. On average, the deciding partner keeps $8 and gives away $2.http://www.forbes.com/2008/09/24/neuroscience-psycology-money-forbeslife-health-cx_mh_0924brain.html

Building, growing images express artist's hopePittsburgh Tribune-Review | September 21Carnegie Mellon University art professor Susanne Slavick is one such artist, and her work is now the subject of the "2008 Artist of the Year" exhibition currently on display at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in Shadyside. Slavick was chosen two years ago to be 2008 Artist of the Year. Back then, she had begun a sabbatical after serving as head of the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon from 2000 to 2006. Around that time, she says, she started to notice images of the 2006 Lebanon war on the Internet.http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/search/s_589381.html

Information Technology

Take steps to reduce chance of ID theft, experts adviseMiami Herald | September 21Check the bottom right corner of the website for a small lock icon, says Carnegie Mellon University Engineering Dean Pradeep Khosla, who works with the university's cybersecurity lab. If the lock is locked, it's a safe, encrypted site. If it's unlocked, it's not. (Not all websites have this feature, but it's worth looking for.)http://www.miamiherald.com/136/story/695062.html

Biotechnology

Professor to watch: Yu-Li Wang, Carnegie Mellon UniversityPittsburgh Business Times | September 22Last month, Yu-Li Wang left his research post at the University of Massachusetts’ medical school to move to Pittsburgh, where he now heads Carnegie Mellon University’s growing biomedical engineering department. The department has overseen a steady increase in students taking the major, from 20 to more than 180 in the past five years.http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2008/09/22/focus6.html?jst=pn_pn_lk

Environment

10 environmental reasons the Bahamas should not engage in any LNG facilityThe Bahamas Weekly | September 24The LNG process itself poses a very serious long-term hazard to our global environment. LNG is not a renewable energy source. LNG is a dirty fossil fuel - no matter how hard someone tries to spin it. You may wonder how dirty is LNG? Actually, according to scientist at Carnegie Melon, LNG has 35% higher lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than coal. In the September 2007 edition of the journal Environmental Science and Technology, Carnegie Mellon researchers show that liquefied natural gas (LNG) imported from foreign countries and used for electricity generation could have 35 percent higher lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than coal used in advanced power plant technologies.http://www.thebahamasweekly.com/publish/letter-to-the-editor/10_Environmental_Reasons_The_Bahamas_Should_Not_Engage_in_Any_LNG_Facility-004295.shtml

Regional Impact

City shifts to younger work force, census saysPittsburgh Tribune-Review | September 23Kimberly Walkenhorst, one of the seven owners of the coffee house, said a good example of Pittsburgh's attraction is that Google opened a facility here when it couldn't lure enough Carnegie Mellon University graduates to Northern California.http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/search/s_589592.html

Local

Powering our nationPittsburgh Post-Gazette | September 22Today I am in Pittsburgh to discuss how we can encourage the energy innovation that will be critical to our nation's growth. It is natural to come to Pittsburgh, a place with a rich history of innovation. Today dynamic organizations from around the region are building on that legacy: at universities like Carnegie Mellon; within companies like Westinghouse; and at hundreds of smart, agile companies that are the future of Pittsburgh's economy.http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08266/913987-109.stm

Alcoa engineer, Carnegie Mellon prof share Nobel creditPittsburgh Tribune-Review | September 19Alcoa chemical engineer Kenneth Martchek and Carnegie Mellon University professor Edward Rubin were honored by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their contributions on man-made climate change issues. They are among hundreds of scientists over some 20 years who have created a body of work that the Norwegian Nobel Committee deemed significant enough that the panel was awarded a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/search/s_588980.html

International

Pioneer batchMalaysia Star | September 21A total of 19 students from INTI International University College’s (INTI-UC) American degree transfer program were listed in the president’s honor roll and dean’s honor roll in recognition of their academic excellence. They were the first batch of Public Services Department sponsored students at INTI-UC who had successfully gained admission to Ivy League and Ivy League-standard universities in the United States. Josh Foo Chuan Keat and Samantha Lee will be going to the University of Pennsylvania while Claire Chin, Fiona Teo and Julia Chua will head for Carnegie Mellon University, Northwestern University and Brown University, respectively.http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2008/9/21/education/2034238&sec=education